Earthquake
by ebi pers
Summary: After a massive earthquake devastates San Fransokyo, Hiro, Tadashi, and the rest of Big Hero 6 must try to pull their city back together while dealing with the trauma and some unintended events afterwards...
1. Magnitude

**A/N: Hi guys! So I know it's been a while (sorry). I was in Disney! And I got so much BH6 merch while I was there and it's been inspiring me. Then I had my wisdom teeth removed which wasn't so inspiring…But you don't wanna hear about that. The idea of this fic came from a line I spotted in a San Fransokyo tour brochure that was included in a BH6 book in Barnes and Noble. Apparently San Fransokyo was destroyed by an earthquake (the same kind that often hit San Francisco and other areas of North California) and the city in the movie is on the cutting edge of technology deliberately as a result of the rebuilding efforts to make it that way. Well that got me thinking: earthquakes are pretty common in Cali, including big ones. What's to stop another earthquake from occurring? And I know buildings in San Francisco are over-engineered to handle the added stresses of earthquakes and it stands to reason San Fransokyo is the same way…but what if it was a REALLY bad earthquake that overwhelmed their infrastructure?**

**So this is set sometime after my fic "These Are The Things." For those of you unaware, all of my BH6 fics are on one continuous timeline so go read These Are The Things for more details! But long story short, Tadashi is alive. I'll allude to the previous story on occasion so it'll probably make more sense if you've read my other stories, but you don't need to. Also, thanks for all the prompts! Seems like many of you want more Tadahoney, more Hiro and Tadashi brotherly moments, Tadashi helping the team, and more Aunt Cass being her badass self so I'll see what I can do on those fronts and incorporate them here and future works! Please let me know what you think. (And apologies for the long ramble)**

**ALSO REALLY IMPORTANT: Most sources are saying Tadashi is 21 during the time of the movie events, so that's what I'm sticking with. I didn't just make that age up, I swear!**

* * *

"Turn it down, we're trying to study!" GoGo practically snarled at Fred as a hyper-realistic explosion noise rang out from the television where he was playing his video game.

They were in Hiro and Tadashi's garage, studying for finals, which started the following week, and it was safe to say everyone was a little stressed. Tadashi had developed a disturbing caffeine dependence, Hiro couldn't sleep fitfully and stayed up late into the night studying, Wasabi was always teetering on the brink of a meltdown when faced with studying for his advanced linear algebra course, GoGo was moody, and even Honey Lemon was a lot less perky. Only Fred, whose final grades consisted almost entirely of essays and term papers that had already been turned in, was able to carry on as normal.

There was quiet for a few minutes, then suddenly another series of loud, cartoonish explosions and gunshots.

"FRED!" GoGo got up from her chair so quickly it fell over. Everyone seated around the table looked up, faces registering shock and even fright at the girl's sudden outburst. Even Fred, who was usually unfazed by GoGo's aggressiveness during finals week, looked afraid. He fumbled for the remote and turned the volume down as low as it would go without breaking eye contact with her for fear she would strike without him seeing. She paused, waited until she was sure he wasn't going to crank the volume back up the second she turned away, then slowly righted the chair and sat down again, thumbing through her Physics III book.

"I can't do this anymore!" Hiro exclaimed, a note of desperation in his voice.

Tadashi glanced over at his little brother, whose face was dominated by the dark bags under his eyes. He couldn't help but think the boy was too young to look _this _tired and _this _stressed.

"If I don't get a break soon," Hiro continued, gesturing wildly, "I'm going to go crazy!"

Tadashi genuinely felt bad for the boy. This was his first semester at college after all. It was to be expected. "You get used to it," he tried to encourage his brother. "It's a bit of a…rough adjustment at first, right guys?"

GoGo scoffed. "Try no adjustment. You just gotta woman up and get it over with." She snapped her bubblegum for dramatic effect and returned to her textbook.

"Tadashi's right, Hiro," Honey Lemon glanced up from a biochemistry textbook. "It'll be less stressful after your first few semesters."

"You guys should lighten up," Fred paused the game and joined his friends at the table in the center of the garage. He put an arm around Wasabi and another around GoGo. "Take a break, eat something…"

Wasabi pulled away. "No! I can't take a break! Do you see this?" He held up a study guide as thick as the textbook itself. "I need to know all of this cold by next Tuesday!"

"Just a quick one, please?" Fred asked. "I'm bored and hungry, man!"

Honey Lemon looked up, thought it over a minute. "Guys, maybe we should get something to eat…"

GoGo sighed, deciding to humor Fred. "Fine. I'll go to Radical Ramen, pick something up, and be right back."

"Yes!" Fred whooped. "I'm coming with!"

"No," GoGo insisted. "It'll be faster if I do it myself." She made for the door and Fred followed her out anyway.

Wasabi sighed. "I better make sure she doesn't kill him."

Tadashi chuckled, rising to his feet as the physics major got up from the table and followed the other two out of the garage. "I need a coffee refill," he stretched, grabbing his mug. "Can I get anyone else anything while I'm up?"

"I could use some coffee," Hiro sighed.

"I…don't think that's such a good idea. Besides, you don't even _like _coffee!"

Hiro yawned. "At this point, I'll do anything to stay awake."

"You're not drinking coffee," Tadashi decided. "Honey Lemon?"

"I have my green tea," she replied brightly. Tadashi nodded with a small smirk of his own and disappeared through the garage door to return to the house.

Honey Lemon was startled by Hiro's head bashing against the desk. "Hiro! What's wrong?"

"Expos," the boy mumbled cryptically into the table without picking his head up.

"You mean the writing course?"

Hiro picked his head up enough to respond affirmatively. "I have to go in, write an essay in two hours on a book I didn't read, and somehow I'm expected to pass this class." Another thud indicated his forehead was firmly planted in the veneer surface once more.

Honey Lemon shook her head ruefully. She didn't remember a thing from expository writing. "At least you're getting the requirement out of the way?" she offered hesitantly, as if trying desperately to find an upside. "Fred's an English major. Maybe he can help you when he gets back."

Tadashi returned with a mug of coffee and a can of soda and a pack of gummy bears, which he chucked at his brother. "I know I'm gonna regret this when you can't sleep later but maybe this'll perk you up."

Hiro tore into the candy with renewed gusto.

Tadashi sat back down. "How's it coming?" he inquired.

"Almost done with organic chem," Honey Lemon declared with relief, indicating a stack of bright pink flashcards she had made. "Then it's on to calc III. You?"

Tadashi flipped a page. "I'm almost done with my biomechanics course. I still have to study for physics. Finals are going to be the death of me."

Hiro was about to say something when he felt the table and chair begin to shake. It was faint at first, then subsided. "What was that?"

Tadashi shrugged, a frown creased across his brow. Honey Lemon looked around. "Maybe there was a truck passing by?" she offered.

Tadashi shook his head. "I don't think a truck would do that…"

Then a second set of shakes hit, stronger than the first. His coffee sloshed out of his mug and a few stacked textbooks fell over on the table. A startling realization hit Tadashi as the shaking got more powerful. _Earthquake_. The lights began to flicker.

"Tadashi?" Hiro's alarmed voice cried out.

"Earthquake!" he shouted in response. The tremors grew stronger still. Car alarms blared. Glass shattered as things began falling off shelves. "Get down!" Tadashi ordered, rising from his chair and pulling Hiro and Honey Lemon under the table with him as their textbooks tumbled and fell around them. He was desperately trying to remain calm but he couldn't remember the last time the tremors had been this _forceful_. He could feel the floors and walls vibrating with the movement of the earth, groaning in protest of the unnatural shaking. They weren't supposed to be making noises like that. They were meant to withstand something like this. But still the tremors intensified. Tadashi watched in horror as the far wall of the garage tipped perilously and began falling toward them. Thinking fast, he grabbed Honey Lemon and his little brother, pressing them flat against the floor and throwing himself on top of them. There was a loud crash and the sound of the wooden table splintering above them. Then blackness.

* * *

The last major earthquake in San Fransokyo had occurred over twenty years prior, before Tadashi or Hiro had been born. It had devastated the city, previously a major commercial and industrial hub. Reeling from the disaster and with so many lives lost, infrastructure destroyed, and buildings reduced to rubble, the city was forced to rebuild basically from the ground up. Aunt Cass talked about the day it happened. She had been in school and separated from her brother and parents for almost two days while the city worked to clean up the damage enough to allow people to travel safely. Neither brother could really imagine the chaos besides what they saw in history books. Afterwards, San Fransokyo emerged as a leader in green energy and technological advancement, bringing in the brightest minds from around the globe to create a sprawling metropolis of futuristic technology.

_That _was the San Fransokyo Hiro, Tadashi, and their friends knew and grew up in. They had earthquake drills from time-to-time in school but the buildings had been re-engineered to withstand even the most devastating of earthquakes. Every few years there would be tremors from the nearby fault but nothing serious enough to cause anything more than some trash bins falling over. This earthquake was uncharacteristic even for a city built along a fault line. The meters were registering quakes that were completely off the charts and unlike anything ever recorded. The city was caught entirely off-guard.

* * *

Hiro coughed and hacked as the dust settled. Honey Lemon was curled beside him, blinking dust from her eyes. Her pink-framed glasses had fallen off in the quake but she seemed otherwise unharmed save for a few scratches.

"Are you okay?" she managed to wheeze out. Hiro nodded. _Tadashi_. Where was Tadashi? The fourteen year old twisted around and spotted his brother sprawled out on the ground. The table had collapsed on them and he'd taken the brunt of the impact. Rubble and bits of roofing pinned the debris to his brother, who was bleeding from the side of his head.

"Tadashi!" Hiro frantically clawed at the debris, trying to pull it off his brother. "Tadashi!" Honey Lemon saw the young man's prone form and joined Hiro in trying to dig him out. The boy's mind was racing. He had just gotten his big brother back. There was no way he was going to lose him again. "Tadashi!"

* * *

**A/N: So I'm ending here because I'm evil and want to toy with your emotions. Poor Hiro. He thought Tadashi was dead only to find him alive only to now maybe lose him because he was protecting him. And what about Fred, GoGo, and Wasabi? And Aunt Cass? And MOCHI! WON'T SOMEONE THINK OF MOCHI! And Baymax of course. Well all will be revealed in due time. I'm going to use this story to launch into a few more BH6 short series but first I'll add a few more chapters to this. Let me know what you think with a review? Pretty please?**


	2. Dust

**A/N: Hi guys! I'm back with the next installment of our earthquake series. The way I see this breaking down is that there will be three chapters (if you lost count, this would be chapter two!) and ending there, but the ending will Segway into my next story, which will be considerably longer and hopefully more exciting. My semester is just starting so I've got some free time right now to put all my thoughts to paper (or word doc, as it were) so hopefully you guys will bear with me! Please let me know what you think of this story. I hope you're all enjoying it!**

* * *

"Tadashi!" Hiro frantically clawed at the debris, trying to pull it off his brother. "Tadashi!" Honey Lemon saw the young man's prone form and joined Hiro in trying to dig him out. The boy's mind was racing. He had just gotten his big brother back. There was no way he was going to lose him again. "Tadashi!"

Hiro struggled against the mountains of collapsed debris that trapped his brother. He was panting, scrambling as he clawed at dusty bits of cracked drywall and splintered wood, Honey Lemon digging beside him. "Tadashi!" he called again, desperately hoping for a sign that his brother was alright. "Tadashi c'mon!"

Honey Lemon looked around the garage, eyes searching for something they could use as leverage to lift the heavier chunks of debris. She spotted the dented workbench in the corner, eyes lighting up when she spotted the end of a crowbar peeking out. Rising to her feet, she hurried to the corner of the garage and wrenched the tool loose as the younger Hamada continued to claw at the fallen pieces of the structure.

"Tadashi, please," Hiro could feel tears welling in his eyes. There was blood on the right side of Tadashi's head where something had clearly fallen on him. It covered his eye, dripped down his cheek. There was still no movement from the older Hamada. The boy continued to rip at the fallen bits of wall and ceiling that trapped his brother. "You gotta be okay. You gotta be!"

The boy was coughing and hacking with all the dust in the air, fearing for the safety of his brother, his aunt, his friends. But especially Tadashi. He had only recently discovered that his brother was okay, that he had survived the explosion on the night of the showcase. He had only recently gotten Tadashi back. There was no way he could lose his big brother now. Hiro sank to his knees, his strength starting to fail him. He was out of breath, dizzy from the earthquake. For a superhero, he sure felt helpless now.

"Here, we can use this to pry some the heavy debris off him," Honey Lemon coughed as she gently inserted one end of the crowbar beneath a particularly large piece of drywall. She put all of her weight on the other end but could not lift the debris. "It's too heavy!" Hiro rushed to Honey Lemon's side, grabbing hold of the crowbar as well and applying his full weight to the tool.

The two strained under the weight of the ceiling, succeeding in lifting it only a few inches but it was enough to expose part of Tadashi's upper body. Hiro knelt at his brother's side, desperately searching his neck for a pulse. "He's alive!" he declared, his tone a mixture of triumphant and relieved.

"Good," Honey Lemon panted, her breathing ragged due to the dust and the physical exertion.

A thought struck Hiro and his eyes widened in horror. "Aunt Cass! Where's Aunt Cass?" The boy scrambled to his feet, brushing dust from his sweatshirt and shorts. "I have to find her!" He looked urgently to Honey Lemon. "Stay with Tadashi, okay? I'll find Aunt Cass and Baymax!"

Honey Lemon nodded, turning back to the unconscious young man and trying her best to tend to him.

Hiro raced into the dim house as the dust settled all around him. All the lights were out, the only source of illumination being the emergency lights installed for this very reason, and he could see cracks and gaps in the walls where patches of drywall had come loose and fallen on the floor. "Aunt Cass!" he called out into the darkness, straining his eyes to see anything. "Aunt Cass, are you alright?"

A faint groan emanating from the kitchen alarmed him and he turned toward the room, finding his way through the darkened house instinctively. "Aunt Cass?" Hiro let out a sharp gasp when he entered the kitchen of the house. It was in disarray, the walls having come down in some places. Shattered tiles that had fallen off the backsplash lay strewn amidst the debris on the black-and-white tiled floor. Dishes that had been drying in the rack had fallen from their perch. The refrigerator door hung open and askew, a mess of spilled sauces, cracked eggs, smashed tomatoes, crushed grapes, and other food scattered all over. He heard another groan and spotted Aunt Cass lying near a pile of rubble towards one end of the kitchen. Even in the dim emergency lighting, he could see that she was hurt.

"Aunt Cass!" Hiro picked his way carefully over to her. "Aunt Cass! Are you okay?"

"Hiro? Oh thank goodness! I'm—I'm fine. M-my arm is just stuck," his aunt replied, indicating her left arm, which was pinned.

"Here, let me help," Hiro carefully began lifting the fragments of wall and ceiling off of his aunt's arm. There was significantly less debris in the house and the rubble was much lighter. Finally, Aunt Cass was able to gingerly pull her arm free.

"Are you okay?" Hiro asked with trepidation.

"I'm—" Aunt Cass hissed in pain midsentence, "it's fine." She shielded her arm from her nephew's view.

"Aunt Cass, let me see!" Hiro insisted, moving to his aunt's side. He was horrified at what he saw. There was a long, open gash along her forearm.

"It's not that bad," Aunt Cass insisted quickly. "W-where's Tadashi?"

Hiro's mind flicked back to his brother, still partially buried under rubble. "He's hurt," the boy admitted, unable to hide the fact. "But he's alive…where's Baymax?" He got to his feet. "Baymax?" he called. "Baymax, help!" There was the faint noise of the robot inflating, then the rustling of vinyl as Baymax made his way toward the sound of Hiro's voice.

"Hello, Hiro," the robot greeted cordially.

"Baymax, I need you to scan Aunt Cass's arm. She's hurt it."

"Please hold still," Baymax advised the woman as he initiated the scan. "Scan complete. Diagnosis: compound fracture to the radius and ulna. Temporary treatment includes a sling, but it is advisable that you visit a hospital as soon as possible. I will put your arm in a sling now." Baymax carefully wrapped Aunt Cass's left arm with an ace bandage. "Hiro, I advise taking Aunt Cass to a hospital as soon as possible."

"I…I don't know if we can, Baymax," Hiro murmured.

"Why not? Is the hospital closed?"

"No. There was an earthquake. That's why there's no power. I don't even know if the hospital is still standing. But I need your help. Tadashi's caught under some of the rubble and I need you to help me dig him out."

"Hiro, my primary function is healthcare. But I will assist you in freeing Tadashi however I can."

"He's in the garage, c'mon," Hiro led the way for Baymax, Aunt Cass following closely behind, a look of worry etched in her features. "Here!"

Honey Lemon was still kneeling next to Tadashi, the young man's eyes still shut and his complexion somewhat paler than normal. Hiro could see bruises beginning to form around his brother's eyes.

"Can you get it off him, Baymax?"

The vinyl robot approached the pile of rubble and began to lift pieces off of Tadashi. Hiro and Honey Lemon joined in and eventually the three were able to create enough room to carefully pull Tadashi out.

Hiro's breath was ragged, his throat felt parched and cracked from the exertion and all the particles in the air that he had no doubt swallowed but it didn't stop him from shouting his brother's name over and over again as he tugged on Tadashi's arm gently, bargaining, willing him to wake up.

"I will scan Tadashi now," Baymax said. Hiro sat back on his heels to allow the robot to do his job. "Scan complete. Diagnosis: concussion. Treatment includes rest, ibuprofen, and abstaining from strenuous physical activities."

Hiro let out a sigh of relief. _Just a concussion_, he told himself. _Nothing worse. Concussions are treatable. _But his brother still hadn't come to, and that worried him.

"I hope the others are okay," Honey Lemon said, turning to Aunt Cass to ascertain that the woman was alright. "I can't get a cell signal to check on them."

"We need to get out of here," Hiro said grimly. "We need to get Aunt Cass and Tadashi to a hospital and we need to find Fred, GoGo, and Wasabi."

Tadashi stirred and Hiro's heart skipped a few beats. "Tadashi?" The older brother let out a long groan. His eyes fluttered open slowly. He appeared dazed.

"Hiro?" Tadashi croaked, coughing a little and instinctively raising a hand to his temple, rubbing the right side of his head gingerly in reaction to the pain. Hiro could see two black eyes forming.

"You're okay!" the younger brother flooded with relief.

Tadashi struggled to get up but Hiro pushed him back down slowly. "You have a concussion. We have to get you to a hospital, okay?"

Tadashi nodded. "Where is everyone else?" he asked, lying back and staring at the dim ceiling.

Aunt Cass approached slowly now, relief washing over her features.

"Aunt Cass, Baymax, and Honey Lemon are here but we can't get in touch with the others yet. I'm sure they're fine," Hiro replied with false confidence. In truth, he was very worried for his friends. What if they had been inside the noodle shop during the quake? It wasn't that big of a place. Could it have collapsed? What if they were on the street? If the state of the garage and house was anything to go by, a lot of debris would have rained down on the sidewalk and the roadway. What if it struck one of them? And what about the panic that surely arose when the earthquake struck? What if they were caught in a stampede? Any number of horrible circumstances could have befallen them and they all played heavily on the young genius's mind until he forced down all the morbid thoughts. _No. They're fine. They're smart. They would've gotten to safety. _Nonetheless, he wanted to check. He had to make sure.

"Aunt Cass, how's your arm?" Hiro asked, concerned. There were too many people to take care of at once and he felt conflicted over what to do first.

"It's fine," Aunt Cass said shakily, kneeling beside Tadashi and brushing some of the dust from her older nephew's face, a tight smile tugging at her worried features.

"Your arm?" Tadashi questioned, noticing the sling.

"It's nothing," Aunt Cass lied quickly, not wanting to worry him. "Probably just a sprain."

"Actually," Baymax's soothing, matter-of-fact voice spoke, "it is a compound fracture of the radius and ulna. We must get Aunt Cass to a hospital soon."

Tadashi's eyes widened and he struggled to sit up. "Aunt Cass! What happened?"

The woman gently pushed her nephew back into a reclining position. "A piece of drywall fell on me. I'm fine, really. I doesn't even hurt," she tried to disguise the strain in her voice from the pain. "You need to lay down and stop trying to get up so quick."

Tadashi swallowed, squinted his eyes a bit to readjust his blurry vision. "A broken arm is serious," he murmured.

Aunt Cass wanted to laugh despite herself. "So is a concussion. Now sit tight. We'll figure out what to do next."

"The streetlights are all out," Hiro murmured.

"Power grid must have gone down," Honey Lemon concurred as the two peered out of the gaping hole in the garage door. "I wonder if anyone has any power at all."

"We have to try to get Aunt Cass and Tadashi to the hospital anyway," Hiro insisted. "Maybe we'll run into the others on the way. C'mon."

"Hiro, the closest hospital is what? St. Francis Memorial?" Honey Lemon asked. The boy nodded his head. "That's a couple of miles away. How are we going to get there?

"We can take the truck," Aunt Cass suggested. "As long as Honey Lemon drives."

Hiro nodded in agreement. Slowly, he and Honey Lemon helped Tadashi to his feet. He was a little wobbly but insisted it was alright and the four of them, along with Baymax, slowly proceeded through the hole in the garage door.

Nothing could have prepared them for the sight that greeted them on the other side...

Hiro had expected to see some damage. A lot of damage even. Knocked over trash bins, pieces of building material strewn about, fallen streetlights, maybe a couple of snapped trees here or there. He didn't expect to be confronted with what he imagined a battlefield would look like. Trash bins weren't just knocked over, mailboxes, newspaper dispensers, and even entire cars were. Streetlights and power lines were toppled over and lying in the street, blue sparks jumping from their severed wires. Even some of the taller, stronger trees had snapped at the base. Hiro could see the red, dented remains of Tadashi's moped beneath one of them and winced internally. Even more alarming was the fact that it wasn't just pieces of buildings lying in the street. Whole buildings had come down. Buildings specifically designed to withstand even the strongest earthquakes had come crashing down to the earth, reduced to nothing but piles of broken glass, twisted metal, and crumbled concrete. The most disturbing thing, however, were the cries for help, the agonized screaming, the desperate wails of family members, neighbors, and friends searching for one another. The scent of ash and dust wafted through the street. It was sensory overload. His mouth hung open in shock. Beside him, he could tell Honey Lemon was equally shocked. Even Aunt Cass, who had survived the last major earthquake to hit San Fransokyo, looked horrified by the sheer carnage. Tadashi, despite his often blurred vision and inability to focus on any one point for too long, seemed to grasp the gravity of the situation.

"Hiro!" A voice rang out from somewhere down the street. He couldn't quite see because of all the dust particles clouding the air, but he recognized the voice to be GoGo's.

"GoGo!" he called out, turning to Honey Lemon, whose eyes also lit up with relief. From through the cloud of dust, GoGo stepped into view, her black hair almost entirely grey with debris. Behind her, Wasabi and Fred followed, the latter still clutching a brown paper bag with a Radical Ramen logo on it.

As soon as they spotted the group, the three rushed forward. "Are you guys alright?" Wasabi asked, eyes flashing with concern. He noticed Aunt Cass's sling and, upon looking closer, Tadashi's two black eyes.

"Aunt Cass broke her arm," Hiro answered honestly. "And Tadashi has a concussion. We need to get to the hospital."

"How are you getting there?" GoGo asked.

"The truck. Honey Lemon's driving."

"That's…not gonna happen, man," Fred informed him sadly. "We passed it walking over here. It's flattened."

Hiro turned to Aunt Cass, who appeared both unfazed and unsurprised by this fact. He supposed he shouldn't have been either. The truck was parked on the street and every other car parked that way hadn't managed to escape destruction. Besides, even if the truck had survived, the roads were so littered with rubble it would have been nearly impossible to navigate. "I guess we're walking," he sighed. He turned to his brother. "Can you walk?"

"Yeah, yeah," Tadashi waved him off. "I can w—" he swayed perilously to one side, causing Honey Lemon to grab him.

"Uh-huh," GoGo folded her arms, regarding her friend with some sense of amusement to mask her concern for him.

"C'mon, Tadashi," Honey Lemon grunted, draping his right arm over her shoulder and stooping a little so they were of even height. Wasabi took his left side, doing the same so that Tadashi was supported on both sides in case he got another dizzy spell.

The group slowly proceeded down the street towards the hospital. Around them, people were milling about, digging in the rubble in search of belongings, friends, or family.

"We have to help them," Honey Lemon murmured. Hiro looked around, feeling torn once more between his duty to his family and to his city.

"Guys," Hiro said. "Baymax and I can get Tadashi and Aunt Cass to the hospital. Maybe you should go back to the garage and suit up. These people need help."

The others considered it for a moment, looked around at one another, nodding in agreement. "Good luck," GoGo said.

Hiro nodded, taking Honey Lemon's place to support his brother as Baymax took over for Wasabi. "You too," he replied. "Once they've been checked out I'll come back and help you guys. Be careful." And with that, the Hamada procession slowly began to make its way down the street as the rest of Big Hero 6 turned back towards the garage.

* * *

**A/N: And that's part two. We had a snow day today courtesy of the blizzard that largely skipped over our area. I haven't written the next part yet but depending on how long the next part comes out, it will either be the last or second-to-last chapter. BUT this story is also setting up the plot for a much, much longer (talking more than ten chapters) story. Leave a review for me? Pretty please? I'll try to write the next part ASAP.**


	3. Aftershock

**A/N: Hey all! Loving all the support I've gotten for this story so far. It really means a lot to me when you guys read, review, favorite, follow, or any combination thereof. It's a really nice confidence booster. So I was trapped thanks to "Winter Storm Juno" or as we've been referring to it here on campus, "Blizzard 2K15—the reason all our classes were canceled." We're eternally grateful. So thanks to being snowed in and bored at my friend's room/second home, I was able to churn out this update. Please enjoy!**

* * *

The hospital had backup generators. Of course the hospital had backup generators. They had to be ready for emergencies like this. Emergencies where the whole power grid came down at once. San Fransokyo was powered by green energy. Solar farms capped the mountainous peaks surrounding the city. Hydroelectric plants dotted the coastline, producing electricity from the rough waters that crashed against the city's rocky shores. The floating wind turbines that soared above the city, drawing in tourists and beautifying the skyline, produced massive amounts of power due to the coastal winds that kept San Fransokyo at a consistent, springtime temperature almost year-round. But all that power had to go somewhere for distribution. It was the one fallacy, the one weakness in the city's power grid—the centralization, the lines that still ran from home to home, street to street. And of course, all those lines had been severed, toppled, destroyed. So there wasn't power freely flowing anywhere at the moment. But the hospital was ready for that. What they weren't ready for was the sheer human carnage of such a massive disaster, that much was clear to Hiro the moment he walked in with Aunt Cass and Tadashi.

The waiting room was packed, with barely enough room to stand. All manner of injured people were milling about. Some, like Tadashi, seemed a little dazed, no doubt having taken some falling debris to the head. Others, like Aunt Cass, had various extremities immobilized in slings and soft casts and braces. Some looked even worse, bleeding, open wounds, eyes swollen shut. Some were unconscious. Some looked to be in worse condition than that, faces ashen, breathing shallow. Some wounds were so gory Hiro had to look away to avoid throwing up. It made him grateful that he, his friends, and his family had managed to escape relatively unscathed.

The Hamada brothers and Aunt Cass had spent enough time in hospital emergency rooms to know the standard procedure. The triage station was in the center of the room but it was completely obscured by the crowd at this point, the nurses working there clearly overwhelmed. An ambulance crew rushed through, barely giving people enough time to dive out of the way as they wheeled a stretcher past. Hiro felt a chill run down his spine and a sickening feeling take hold as he noticed that the white sheet on the stretcher was drawn all the way up, a vaguely human form visible underneath it, face obscured. He swallowed thickly, knowing what that meant. His eyes sought Aunt Cass, who was noticeably looking away from the other patients, clearly unable to handle the sight of the injuries around her. Tadashi seemed somewhat dazed still, squinting in the bright light. Aunt Cass quietly led him toward the throng of people surrounding the triage station, eager to get checked in. The younger boy let them go, his head still spinning at the carnage.

Even though he was technically a superhero now, Hiro Hamada was still only fourteen years old. And even being a superhero couldn't have prepared him for the devastation he now faced. He had never seen this many injured people, this many victims, this much _death_. Although he had fleeting experience with all of those categories, this much overwhelmed him. How was anyone supposed to recover from this?

"Diagnosis: fractured tibia." The soothing, robotic voice shook Hiro from his thoughts and he turned to spot Baymax bending over a blond boy who looked to be about five or six years old. Tear streaks marked the child's face but he looked up at the nurse-bot with wide, green eyes. All around him, the faces of other patients also registered shock and confusion. Jaws hung open, eyes were fixed on the white, vinyl form. Even the nurses looked up from their work and allowed themselves to become momentarily distracted. The tips of Hiro's ears reddened but Baymax was clearly oblivious, instead producing a sugar-free lollipop and giving it to the astonished child.

"Baymax?" the young hero cleared his throat, calling the robot back to attention. Hiro could feel the eyes turn slowly onto him. "W-what are you doing?"

"I am scanning the patients and diagnosing their injuries," the robot replied matter-of-factly. Aunt Cass and Tadashi rejoined them now.

"Excuse me?" a voice peeped. Hiro wheeled around to face a red-headed nurse clad in pink scrubs. "Is…that robot yours?" Her brown eyes were questioning but kind.

"Uh, yeah," Hiro could feel his cheeks getting hot with embarrassment. "I'm…sorry…he-he'll stop."

"No, no," the nurse had a pleading look in her eyes. "Please. I was just going to ask if we could borrow him. Some of the doctors and nurses saw him diagnosing patients…We're really short staffed and he was able to diagnose that fracture much faster than any of us could have. If he could help us out, we'd be really grateful."

The boy hesitated, looking to Aunt Cass, whose expression clearly told him that he should do whatever he felt was right. He was torn. On the one hand, if the team encountered trouble, they might need the robot's help. But on the other, this was exactly what Tadashi had invented Baymax for in the first place. And wouldn't the nurse-bot's talents be better put to use in the hospital?

"Baymax?" Hiro turned to the robot. "You can help these patients, right?"

The robot blinked. "I am a healthcare companion. That is what I am programmed for."

Hiro turned back to the nurse and nodded his assent. "Okay. Yeah, Baymax can help you guys out."

The woman looked relieved. "I'll tell the doctor. Thank you so much."

Tadashi beamed at his brother. Despite his dizziness, he had witnessed the exchange and the warm smile on his face was enough to reassure Hiro that he had made the right decision.

"I should get back to the others," the boy genius announced reluctantly.

"We'll be okay," Aunt Cass assured him gently. "I'm sure with Baymax helping we'll be seen in no time."

It was clear that Hiro didn't feel right leaving.

"Go," Tadashi urged him. "The city needs you."

It was enough. The boy hugged his aunt and his brother, then slowly made his way through the packed waiting room and back out into the cracked, dust-filled, rubble-littered street. The odor of drywall and building materials hung thickly in the air and made it difficult to breathe. Hiro trudged his way down the sidewalk, sidestepping bricks, fallen mailboxes, downed trees, and overturned cars. The block was eerily deserted, with only a few others milling about, covered in white dust and trundling along like zombies separated from their horde. Other than that, there was no one. He guessed that most of the injured had found their way to a treatment facility while the uninjured had moved on to help others. And the deceased…well they were either in a body bag or buried somewhere beneath all the chaos. Hiro tried to force that thought from his mind as he came up on the Lucky Cat.

Before he could even reach the street corner where the café was located, something rustled in the debris and he jumped back as it burst forth and began rubbing itself against his shin. "Mochi!" The boy bent down to pick up the cat once his heartrate had returned to normal. The calico seemed to be unharmed, though visibly shaken and very dusty. Mochi clung desperately to Hiro until the boy had to pry the creature off of him. The cat scurried away into the eatery, whose doors hung askew, sagging on their hinges. One of the plate glass windows had shattered.

"Guys?" Hiro called out, hoping his friends were still around. "Guys?" He ventured closer to the garage but stopped as he suddenly felt more quaking beneath his feet. He felt he was losing his balance. _Aftershock._ The thought hit him suddenly. How could he have forgotten about the aftershocks? Hiro quickly ducked into the garage, taking cover until the aftershock ended. "Guys?" he peeped.

Hiro stood up cautiously, brushing more dust off himself. A slight rustling drew his attention to Mochi, who was slinking carefully through the door leading to the café.

"Hiro?" the voice was distant at first but unmistakably GoGo's.

"In here!" Hiro called out, his voice echoing through the garage as some more rubble rained from the ceiling.

"You okay?" GoGo stuck her head through the gaping hole in the garage door, her yellow helmet obscuring the concerned look on her face.

"Fine," Hiro confirmed.

"He's okay, guys!" the girl twisted around, calling back to the rest of the team.

"Are you guys okay?"

She nodded and he noticed she was slightly out of breath. "We're okay. But there's a problem."

Hiro's heart skipped a beat and he had to fight down the urge to panic, swallowing the quickly-forming lump in his throat. "What's wrong?" he tried to hide the shaking in his voice.

"It's the suits," GoGo answered. "The power cells are running out of charge and with the grid down, we won't be able to keep going for much longer."

"How much charge is left?" the boy genius asked, moving toward the garage door.

"Maybe an hour or two tops," she replied. "After that, we'll be useless."

_Baymax! _The thought hit him suddenly. If the superhero suits were running low on charge, surely Baymax wouldn't be far behind. Especially if he was scanning so many people at the hospital. And if he was low on battery, he would be more of a hindrance than anything else. Plus, the hospital really needed all the help they could get.

"We need to find a way to help get the grid back up," Hiro announced determinedly.

* * *

**A/N: Okay, there's chapter 3! I was going to make it longer but I was just so swamped this week I didn't get a chance. So sorry for the late posting but I hope you guys enjoyed and I'll try to get the next one up sooner than last! Please drop me a review and let me know what you think. Have a great week!**


	4. The Grid

**A/N: Oh my goodness, it's been a while! So sorry for that, guys. Real life gets in the way of the fun sometimes. But I'm back now for the final chapter of this story. REMEMBER: this is just a prologue for the series I'm starting. And the first chapter of the new story will be released NEXT WEDNESDAY (the day after the movie comes out on DVD/Blu-Ray). Consider it a celebration. Guess what? BH6 is now the third highest grossing Disney film OF ALL TIME! Just behind Frozen and the Lion King. That's HUGE news! But I digress. Enjoy the final chapter of "Earthquake" and I hope that you'll leave me a review when you're done! ALSO: Tadahoney in this story. Or at least allusions and references to it. Hope that's okay with all of you!**

* * *

"_Think_," Hiro admonished himself aloud, pacing around a street light that had been snapped in half as the team looked on with concern. "There's gotta be a way we can fix this!"

"The suits are draining fast," Wasabi noted glumly, attempting to activate the laser blades on his hands. They were only running at half their normal capacity, judging from the weak glow they gave off, proving the physics major's point.

Hiro let out a deflated sigh. "There has to be another way. Something we can do to power up the suits or get the grid back up and running…_something_. We can't just sit here!" He flopped down on the cracked, dusty sidewalk, gripping his head in his hands. _What would Tadashi do if he wasn't in the hospital recovering from his head trauma? How would he find a creative solution to this problem? _The others sat silently, each trying to work out a solution.

"What if we don't try to restore the grid, but instead we try to power essential buildings in the city and buy the maintenance crews time to get the actual power back?" Wasabi suggested.

"Good idea," Hiro agreed. It certainly seemed much simpler than trying to repair the city's infrastructure in one night. "But how are we going to come up with enough power to keep even the essential buildings running?"

"I got it!" Fred declared triumphantly. "We get Honey Lemon to cause an explosion using a top secret mixture of chemicals. Then, we harness the energy of that explosion and use it to power the city! It's genius!"

"It's...really not," Honey Lemon spoke up dejectedly, watching her friend's shoulders slump in defeat. "Even if I could make an explosion with enough energy to power the whole city, we have no way of harnessing that power."

"We could invent something in the lab! Right?" Fred suggested brightly.

"Wait!" Hiro leapt up from the ground in excitement. "That's it!"

"It is?" the team cried out in almost perfect unison. Even Fred looked astonished that his idea had been accepted.

"Yes!" Hiro could feel a giddiness building in his chest, rising. He couldn't hide the smile on his face. "The lab! There's got to be something there we can use or repurpose…something!"

"That's…actually a good point," Wasabi conceded.

"I hate to sound like a pessimist but we have to be realistic, guys," Go Go spoke up. "We don't even know if the lab is still standing."

"It's our only shot," Hiro replied. "We have to at least see."

* * *

The journey to San Fransokyo Institute of Technology usually took exactly twenty-two-and-a-half minutes by foot during rush hour. Hiro had it timed down to the second so that he could sleep in as late as possible. If he and Tadashi took the street car, it was about fourteen minutes. Ten with traffic if they took the moped, Aunt Cass's truck, or Wasabi's car. Fifteen if they hit every red light along the way. But fumbling around in the darkened city streets full of pot holes, debris, and fallen obstacles, the journey took considerably longer. It was nearly an hour later when they finally reached the edges of the SFIT campus. Hiro breathed out a sigh of relief when he saw the lab, still standing in all its modern glory. He could see through the large, floor-to-ceiling windows—some shattered—that the building's interior was bathed in pale light.

SFIT had its own generators, solar panels, and power grid due to the temperamental nature of the projects undertaken there. Some materials were volatile if they reached a certain temperature, others if they were not exposed to the correct amount of light. Still others needed to be constantly powered to avoid catastrophic side effects. In short, the school could not afford to leave these projects' fate to the public power grid. And that would be the team's ticket to hopefully finding a solution to this problem.

"Okay guys," Hiro instructed the team when they entered, "check your work stations for anything that could help us out—batteries, power cells…anything! We need to find a way to restore power to the city's major buildings."

The boy genius made a beeline for the enclosed lab that he and Tadashi shared. Tadashi had been given the private lab when he was conducting undergraduate research under Professor Callaghan. Some of the materials and schematics he had worked with were sensitive and needed to be kept under lock and key. After the project ended his sophomore year, Callaghan had pulled some strings to let the older Hamada keep his workspace. Hiro had reaped the benefits of that when he was first given the lab, and he was more than happy to share with Tadashi now that he was…back.

The fourteen-year-old yanked open every drawer, opened every cupboard, checked every work bench for anything that could be used to charge up a generator or power a device. It was easier said than done. In ten minutes, all he'd managed to come up with was a handful of lithium-ion batteries, two old lead batteries that he was fairly certain didn't work, a phone charger that was useless without a current, and a small solar power cell that he had ripped from a calculator. And Baymax's charging station, which was not at all helpful unless plugged in.

Throwing his finds in a box, he went out to join his friends in the lab. Fred was unscrewing the back of an action figure.

"What are you doing?" Hiro asked.

Fred held up the plastic collectible. "I was trying to leave my complete Captain Ultramegaman collection in the original packaging, but this is kinda important. Check it out," he opened his fist to show Hiro a handful of lithium-ion batteries. "They're powered by these. I thought they could help." Hiro nodded, awestruck as Fred dumped the small, circular batteries into the box.

"Here," Go Go approached him, toting a car battery that must've weighed at least fifteen pounds.

"Where'd you get that?" Hiro questioned.

She shrugged. "Had it lying around. I'm not using it. Maybe it can power a generator or something. There's three more over by my lab table."

Hiro thanked her and moved on to Honey Lemon's corner of the lab where she was eagerly prying apart any battery-powered device she could find. Her scale, calculators, timers, and microscope had all been stripped of their batteries, which she deposited with the other power cells they had found.

"This is great and all," Hiro said, looking into the box of assorted power cells and devices, "but if we want to power a building we're going to need something a lot more powerful…"

"Well…" Honey Lemon began. "There is…" she glanced nervously at Wasabi.

"No!" Wasabi's eyes widened. "No way. You can't! We worked too hard on…"

"There's no other way!" Honey Lemon interrupted him.

"What are you talking about?" Hiro questioned, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

Wasabi sighed, realizing Honey Lemon was right. "Two semesters ago, Honey Lemon and I teamed up on a project to power a laser grid. She helped me develop these small power cells to power the project."

"They run on a series of chemical reactions," Honey Lemon filled in. "They're small but very powerful. We submitted the designs to the school for patenting purposes but it's taking a while…The prototypes are still here though!"

"And they work?" Hiro asked excitedly.

"Of course they work!" she answered.

"Where did you guys keep them?"

"In the projects room," Wasabi replied more readily. "I have a key. C'mon."

The green-clad hero lead the others toward a locked door in the back of the building.

The projects room was where all completed or half-finished projects went for storage. Files were locked in drawers, actual machines put in locked boxes or covered in drop cloths and hermetically sealed. Things that needed to be kept at a consistent temperature were moved to the cold or hot storage rooms but other than that almost anything an SFIT student had built that hadn't been patented yet was kept here for safekeeping.

"Okay," Wasabi said, making his way around the room. "The device is in here," he indicated a locked storage unit, selecting another key from his meticulously organized, color-coded key ring. This one was labeled with neon blue tape. He inserted the key into the lock and twisted, pulling open the locker with a heavy, metallic clang to reveal a small machine wrapped in a drop cloth. The tag on the inside of the door read Developed by:_ Rodriguez, A., Williams, D. _The advisors were listed as _Suzuki_, _M_. and _Sagar_, _A__. _Wasabi carefully drew the invention out of the locker and unwrapped it.

Hiro was surprised by how compact the laser emitter was. "I'm sorry, baby, it's for a good cause," Wasabi whispered to the device.

"Oh suck it up, we have a power grid to save," Go Go yanked the laser from his grip and began to pry at it with a screwdriver.

"Easy! Easy!" Wasabi gestured wildly. "Be gentle with it!"

"Guys?" Fred called, his voice echoing through the large room. "My suit's power cell is drained. No fireballs."

Honey Lemon glanced at her purse. "Mine is empty too."

"I'm drained also," Go Go growled as she finally pried the machine's faceplate loose, revealing a series of power cells inside. There were at least thirty, each glowing brightly.

"Be careful! They're volatile if you handle them too roughly!" Honey Lemon warned. "Here, I'll do it," she assumed Go Go's place and methodically lifted the glowing power cells from the core of the device. "I'll hold onto these."

"Okay," Hiro nodded to his friends. "Hopefully they'll be powerful enough to power a few buildings until the city can fully repair the grid. We can use whatever else we found to start restoring power to places around the city as well." A beeping noise emanating from his arm indicated that his suit had also run out of power. "Let's ditch the suits here. We can leave them to charge off the generator power and pick them up afterwards. I wanna check out the power station as well, just in case there's something we can do."

The team switched back into regular clothes and proceeded out of the SFIT laboratory. The city's main power station was located in the foothills just past uptown, a sprawling complex that was normally illuminated as bright as day during all hours and ordinarily visible from Hiro and Tadashi's bedroom window. But now, stumbling around in the darkened streets, unable to see their goal, the journey felt endless. Hiro was hopeful that they would at least be able to do something while they were up there, though he doubted it.

The central power station was normally surrounded by a barbed wire fence and numerous Danger! High Voltage signs to deter trespassers. The earthquake had brought all of that down, exposing the station. Blue sparks crackled every so often as the team cautiously approached, weaving their way around exposed wires.

"We need to get to the central control room," Hiro stage whispered to the others, afraid that there might be guards around. They might be willing to write Big Hero 6 a free pass, but right now they were just five college kids stumbling around.

The control room was easy to find thanks to its sheer size—easily three or four times larger than any other building in the complex. It was bathed in red emergency lights and the haphazardly spun-around chairs and knocked over stacks of paper clearly indicated the frenzy of the evacuation after the quake. Backup generators were struggling to keep up with demand and Hiro was certain that most of the power wasn't being pushed through to the city anyway.

"Let me take a look," Go Go suggested, inspecting the room for any indication as to where the main power distribution center was. The others followed the industrial design and mechanical engineering whiz. She seemed to find what she was looking for as she pried off a large panel and began investigating the mess of wiring inside, some of which had become wrenched loose in the earthquake. "Well the good news is that most of the power infrastructure is still intact," she declared finally. "The bad news is that since most of the power lines are down, the city still has no way of accessing that power."

Hiro sighed. He should have known this was the case but it was worth a shot.

"Guess it's time for plan B," Fred declared with excitement. "Time to bring power to the people!" He held up a lithium battery dramatically, panicking when it slipped from his grasp and clattered to the floor, landing on its side and rolling around him in circles a few times before he was finally able to snatch it up with a slightly embarrassed chuckle.

"We should split up," Hiro advised. "Wasabi and Fred, you guys take downtown. Go Go, you hit up the city center. Honey Lemon and I can head back uptown to restore power up there. We'll meet back at the Lucky Cat."

"What buildings do we power?" Wasabi asked.

"Get the essentials first," Hiro suggested. "Hospitals, fire stations, police stations. Then try bringing power back to a few stores and restaurants or places people can seek shelter if you have any power cells left."

With that, the team split up to make the long walks to their assigned perimeters. Honey Lemon walked alongside Hiro, slowing her strides to match the pace set by his shorter legs. She studied him for a little bit, noticed that he looked different. _Older_. He had changed a lot when they had first thought Tadashi was dead. They had all changed a lot. But since they had discovered the elder Hamada's whereabouts, most of the team had returned largely to their original selves. Hiro, however, seemed to be under just as much stress. Perhaps for different reasons. But if Hiro had looked older before, he looked even older now, with an ashen face, deep-set bags under his eyes, and a slow gait.

"You're worried about Tadashi," she noted without really asking.

"Yeah," Hiro swallowed thickly, the single syllable somewhat strangled in his throat.

"He'll be fine, you know," Honey Lemon tried to reassure him and herself. "It's a concussion. Those can heal."

"I know."

But she knew that wasn't what Hiro was worried about. Nor was it what she was worried about or any of their friends really. It could have been a scrape but it would have had the same effect. They had already lost Tadashi once. The possibility of losing him again was terrifying. In the time before Tadashi's disappearance, she had believed they had a real future together. They had begun a relationship in the first semester of their sophomore year. She hadn't decided yet if what she felt for Tadashi was love, but whatever it was, she felt it very strongly and could sense he did as well. They connected on a very deep level. He understood, respected her intellect and made her feel valued. So his apparent death had hit her very hard, if not as hard as it struck Hiro. After Tadashi's return, things hadn't been the same. Their past relationship seemed to be the elephant in the room, neither referencing it though she could still feel the tension, still feel that same emotion welling up inside her when she saw him, thought of him. But she didn't want to press the issue. He hadn't been back very long, was still readjusting to life in a world that had gone nearly a year without him. He needed time. And the earthquake had nearly cut that time short before they could rekindle anything. The thought of forever living with that uncertainty, forever living without the boy who made her feel this way, was horrifying, especially now that she'd been given an excruciating taste of that life.

Uptown loomed ahead of them, dark and dusty. People were still milling about, sifting through rubble, calling out names of loved ones. Honey Lemon looked at the six power cells she had. "I'll go to the police station, the fire station, then the shelter and grocery stores."

Hiro nodded. "I'm going to get the Lucky Cat so that we have someplace to work out of later. Then I'll go to the clinic, grocery stores, and the hospital." The two parted ways. The Lucky Cat—or at least the remains of it—stood empty and crumbling as Hiro crept through the garage. Mochi, who had been dozing amid the debris, woke up and followed him curiously as he went to the fuse box and began fiddling with the electrical system, hooking it up to the power cell. There was a faint whir as the building slowly came back online, much to the astonishment of the boy and the dusty cat. With one objective complete, Hiro continued on to restore power to the clinic and finally to a few corner bodegas stocking staple ingredients. With his final power cell in hand, he headed off to the hospital to check on Baymax who was no doubt either running amok the way he had after their encounter with Callaghan in the factory or completely drained of power at this point and serving as little more than a deflated floor mat.

In the waiting room, he found his answer. Baymax was slumped over, low on air and completely drained in one of the chairs. The same red-haired nurse from earlier spotted the boy and recognized him immediately.

"Thanks for loaning him to us," she said earnestly. "He ran out of battery but before he did he was able to see and diagnose over three hundred patients. He really freed up the emergency room…until he started acting crazy towards the end."

"Sorry about that," Hiro apologized, approaching his deflated healthcare companion and inserting the power cell where his other battery normally was. Baymax immediately came to life, filling with air as he ran through his introduction sequence.

"Hello. I am Baymax, your personal healthcare companion. Hello, Hiro."

"Hey, buddy," Hiro smiled, relieved that the robot was still functioning normally. He turned to the nurse. "How's my aunt and brother?"

"Well we got your aunt into a cast for her broken arm and she's doing fine. A few weeks in that and she'll be back to normal. Your brother needs to rest due to the concussion but the doctor expects him to make a full recovery. You can go see him if you like. He's just through here," the woman led the way, pulling back a curtain to reveal a tired-looking Tadashi reclined in a hospital bed, Aunt Cass sitting beside him, arm immobilized in a dark blue cast. She looked relieved to see her younger nephew.

"Thank goodness you're alright," she said, squeezing him to her side with her good arm. "I mean, we always knew you'd be okay but I'm still so happy to see you," she said.

"We got power going for most of the major buildings in the city," the boy informed her.

"I'm proud of you, bonehead," Tadashi spoke faintly from the bed, a playful smirk spreading across his features. Hiro returned the smirk with a gap-toothed grin that clearly showed his elation at finding his brother relatively safe.

There were voices outside and soon the family was joined by Fred, Wasabi, Go Go, and Honey Lemon.

"Mission accomplished!" Fred declared triumphantly, a little too loudly, causing Tadashi to wince involuntarily as the other five hushed him in unison. "Sorry," Fred whispered. "Mission accomplished!" he cried in a much softer voice.

"So you got power back for all the major buildings?"

"Yup," Go Go snapped her bubble gum. "Piece of cake."

"There's a problem, though," Wasabi announced, eyes a little wide. The others turned to him. "While I was helping the police station get their power back, I heard something bad. Really, really bad."

"What?" Hiro asked with baited breath.

"During the earthquake, fifteen criminals managed to escape San Fransokyo State Penitentiary. They're still at large."

* * *

**A/N: Okay, so I'm evil and ending the series on a cliffhanger. BUT, I already promised a new story that will be based off a continuation of the events here. That story will debut THIS Wednesday evening at approximately seven PM eastern US time. I'm sure you know where it's going… I hope you guys liked this story. I tried to wrap up plot points while also establishing new ones for the next story. Please leave a review letting me know what you think and again, I appreciate all of you for taking the time to read this story through. It really means so much to me!**


	5. Shameless Self Promotion Notice

Hello, readers!

Shameless self-promotion, I know, but since several of you were asking for a sequel or continuation of this series…Well I'm proud to announce that the new story, "Blacklist," has been posted! It'll be a considerably longer story than this one was, so I hope you'll check it out, read, and if you're feeling extra nice, leave me a review. For future reference, new chapters of Blacklist will be posted weekly on Wednesdays at 7 PM US Eastern time. Enjoy and sorry for this pointless chapter—I just wanted to answer all of you who were asking about a sequel. I try not to be this cheesy on a regular basis. You guys rock and motivate me to continue writing, so thank you all!


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